Why would a rich man feel smaller if everyone else got rich too?

Rabbi Landau teaches that the worst thing that can happen to a rich man is everyone else getting rich. The rich man looks at the poor man and thinks, “I have more, so I’m more.” The poor man looks back and thinks, “I have less, so I’m less.” Both agree on one thing: money decides what a person is worth.

Now, he says, watch what is coming: in ten years everyone has a robot that gets everything done. The rich man becomes less important, “although nothing about him changed, only the gap closed in.” You don’t need to lose a dollar to feel smaller. “You only need everyone else to have what used to make you special.”

That exposes the real question: “Did you want a better life or prove that your life was better than his?”

He closes with Shlomo HaMelech: “Ashir varash nifgashu, oseh chulam Hashem,” the rich and the poor meet; Hashem made them all. When the rich and the poor finally meet as equals, they discover what was true all along.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

For many people wealth means having more than someone else, so when others catch up, they feel smaller.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

The rich man feels “I have more, so I’m more,” and the poor man feels “I have less, so I’m less.” Both have let money decide a person’s worth.

Underlying need or longing

What was the rich man really after?

Rabbi Landau asks whether a person wanted a better life or proof that his life was better than someone else’s.

Deepest human truth

“Ashir varash nifgashu, oseh chulam Hashem.” When rich and poor meet as equals, they find that Hashem made them both, and that was always true.